In general, a liquid analysis apparatus is used to analyze the composition of various industrial process solutions for the purpose of quality control, pollution treatment, and so on. In particular, as the need for environmental protection has become increasingly important, it is important to analyze the components of liquid waste and treat them.
In general, according to a conventional liquid analysis apparatus/method, a predetermined amount of a target solution is sampled and transported to a desired place where an analysis apparatus is installed, then the transported sample solution is pretreated under conditions suitable for analysis, and then quantitative analysis can be done using a suitable analysis apparatus. However, in the case of using the conventional liquid analysis apparatus/method as described above, there is a problem that a complicated pretreatment process is performed, a long time is required for analysis, and it costs a lot of money to operate measurement devices. The disposal of large amounts of chemical reagents, which are essentially used, can also be a problem.
Meanwhile, due to the lack of conventional energy resources and rising oil prices, there has recently been a growing interest in shale gas, which is a non-conventional gas resource and a considerable amount of which is distributed across the world. In the past, production of shale gas was hard to make economic sense due to the problem of drilling technology, but the development of shale gas fields was accelerated with the development of hydraulic fracturing technology. Hydraulic fracturing technology is a technology that injects hydraulic fracturing fluid composed of water, sand and chemical additives under high pressure into the shale layer to cause cracks and to collect shale gas through the cracks.
When the hydraulic fracturing progresses or completes, the flowback water is treated. Since the chemical and oil added to the hydraulic fracturing fluid are included in the flowback water, the process of analyzing and treating the contaminants (contaminated materials) is necessarily carried out. Elemental analysis of these contaminants may utilize an Inductively Coupled Plasma (ICP) analysis method or an analysis method using Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy (AAS). However, even when a conventional analysis method such as ICP or AAS is used, the same problems as in the liquid analysis apparatus/method arise.
Accordingly, there is an urgent need for a solution to solve the problems accompanying the conventional liquid analysis apparatus/method.